Bumblefur's Problem
by Phoenixflame of Thunderclan
Summary: LIGHTCLAN CHALLENGE: WHO AM I WITHOUT ME? Bumblefur is happy with life, but one day, while going on a walk with his mate, things turn sour, and Bumblefur must learn how to cope with his new face.


Bumblefur yawned in a pool of golden sunlight. It had been a long day, and he was tired. He had assessing his apprentice, Swiftpaw, with his mate, Hornetfur. Swiftpaw had done good, and Reedstar was about to make him a warrior.

"All cats old enough to catch their own prey join beneath the Highrock for a clan meeting!" Reedstar yowled. As cats bunched together, Bumblefur smoothed the fur on Swiftpaw's shoulder. "Swiftpaw, please come forward. Swiftpaw, do you promise to protect and uphold the Warrior Code, even at the cost of your life?"

At first he looked nervous, but his voice was calm and steady as he replied, "I do."

Reedstar looked up at the darkening sky. "From now on, this apprentice shall be known as Swiftsword, Starclan honors your courage and your loyalty, and we welcome you as a full warrior of Thunderclan."

The newly named Swiftsword padded up to Reedstar, who licked the top of his head, and Swiftsword licked his shoulder in return. "Swiftsword! Swiftsword! Swiftsword!" The clan cheered.

Swiftsword looked overwhelmed with joy as the clan shouted his new name. Reedstar continued, "Now it is your duty to hold a vigil overnight, and keep watch over the clan. You must be silent until sunrise."

He nodded silently and took his place guarding the thorn tunnel. Bumblefur trailed his tail across Swiftsword's spine and made way for the warrior's den. He curled up and quickly fell asleep. The next night, though, even after a long day of hunting and border patrols, he couldn't sleep. He tossed and he turned, but sleep didn't come. Hornetfur was clearly suffering from the same thing. Occasionally leaning against her mate and letting out a long sigh.

Eventually, Bumblefur got up and whispered in her ear. "Do you want to go on a walk?"

She looked up at him, her green eyes sparkling with relief. She got up and shook the moss from her sparkling orange and yellow fur. "Let's go," she whispered, avoiding Swiftsword who was curled up asleep.

Walking as lightly as stalking a mouse, he followed her into the forest. She glanced at him. "It's beautiful tonight, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I wish it was like this every night."

She touched her tail tip to his flank. Her eyes lit up even brighter. "I know a place that we can spend the night." She took off running, clearing trees in one jump and running through brambles as if they were nothing. Soon, she reached a small clearing just inside Thunderclan territory. She curled up again. "It's really soft."

He lay down beside her, and they shared tongues until sleep overtook them both.

The next day, Bumblefur woke up feeling strange. He shrugged it off and shook his white fur... wait, he had black and white fur, not orange and yellow. Looking for a puddle, he finally found one and almost shrieked at what he saw there. The cat looking up at him was orange and yellow with amber eyes. That was Hornetfur's face!

He turned to his mate, seeing that she was black and white with green eyes. Her eyes lit up with confusion. "Am I dreaming?" she asked, her voice sounding more masculine than normal.

"If so, I dreaming it too," he told her, feeling uncomfortable at the high, feminine note in his voice. "And it's a nightmare."

Her pelt bristled with indignation. "What's wrong with my body?"

"I don't like the female form," he muttered.

"Well, we might as well get back to camp," Hornetfur suggested. "What are we going to say about this?"

"Nothing, for now."

"Not even to Reedstar, or Brownleap?" Brownleap is the medicine cat.

"No, just keep it to yourself for a while, we'll get it sorted out, no need to start an uproar over nothing."

As he walked back to camp, he found that he didn't just feel strange, he felt _ really _strange. His paws were plump and clumsy, and he felt bigger than normal. _Is this what she-cats feel like all the time? I pity the poor suckers._ Then he thought for a second. He was one of those suckers now. He was a female. He looked at his mate. It felt very weird to feel close to what is now a male. Even as a female.

He suddenly felt sick. Why? Was he hungry? No, when a mouse crossed his trail and he dispatched of it quickly with Hornetfur, it didn't help. Was it dread? He couldn't be sure, but by he time he reached camp, he knew something was wrong.

He thought he would ask Brownleap, not tell him anything but that he felt big and clumsy and sick. He entered his den. "Brownleap? Are you in here?" he called.

Seconds later, Brownleap appeared. "Ah, Hornetfur, is something wrong?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I feel all big and clumsy, and sick to my stomach."

His eyes sparkled with understanding, but he didn't say anything except, "Come in and lay down."

Confused now, he did as Brownleap instructed. For a few seconds, the medicine cat prodded his belly until he announced, "I knew it! Congratulation Hornetfur, your having kits!"

He froze to the spot. Though the cat had no idea, it was wrong on so many different levels. "Are they Bumblefur's?" Brownleap continued.

Forcing his numbed everything to move, he answered shakily, "Y-y-yes."

"It would probably be best if you moved to the nursery now, it's pretty late."

"Thank you Brownleap," he said, every word dragged out of him as if he had a thorn in his throat.

He got up and left the den, headed towards the nursery. _This is so wrong. _Was all he could think. He was a _tom_, not a she-cat. How was this going to work?

Hornetfur met him halfway there. "So, what did the medicine cat order?" she asked.

He turned sharply to her. "You were expecting kits?" he queried irritably. "And you didn't tell me?"

"I was?" Then her eyes grew sharp with excitement. "That's good, isn't it?"

"Yeah...no, not when _I_, a tom, have to deliver them."

"Oh...yeah that's really weird."

"Your telling me?"

"I feel bad for you, you have no she-cat instincts."

"Now, these kits are mine, right?"

She let out a snort of laughter. "Last time I checked, _your_ my mate, no one else."

"Good, just making sure."

"So, anyway. Do you have a way to get us back to normal?"

"If I did, don't you think I would've done it the second I found out about the kits?"

"How long do you think until the clan finds out?"

"I'll give it a week. News travels fast in the clans, even the most top secret ones."

"Well, good luck, your gonna need it."

He sighed. "Yeah, I probably will..."

It was the fourth day after their transformation. Hornetfur seemed to be getting along well, but

Bumblefur was terrified. Every day he wondered if he could get but to his body, and how. Every day he feared that the kits would arrive. He watched lamentably as the cats prepared to leave, his mate among them. She caught his eye and gave him a look of sympathy.

He suspected that she quite enjoyed it. He would sometimes lay in a pool of sunshine and guess that she was happy to have kits, and happy that even though they were her kits, she didn't have to bear them. "Lucky furball," he hissed under his breath.

The hardest part was acting like nothing was wrong. Trying to match Hornetfur's personality, trying to match her likes and dislikes. Which meant staying away from rabbits, which he loved, but she didn't. He went so far as to only eat voles and shrews, which he wasn't particularly fond of. Hornetfur tried the same thing. He would watch her sometimes screwing her face as she bit into a rabbit, which just thinking about made his mouth water.

He found that he was hungrier more often. He craved for pigeons, and would be the first at the fresh-kill pile should one be brought back by a hunting patrol. Sometimes, he would fall asleep and not wake up until well past sunhigh, and he could tell Hornetfur was overwhelmed by the long patrols. He woke like that one day, snoozing and snoring while everyone else where busy. She padded up to him and dropped a pigeon at his paws.

"I thought you would be hungry, Hornetfur," she meowed, which is what she called him when others were in earshot.

"How'd you know, Bumblefur?" he asked, feeling strange that he should call his mate by his name.

She let out a loud, rumbling purr. "Your always hungry!"

"It's not my fault!"

"I know, eat up!" Leaning closer, she added. "I think we should ask Starclan what we should do."

"How? It's not like we can travel to the Moonstone."

"Why not? We could just say we got caught up doing something while hunting."

"Ahem, don't you remember? Perhaps it would be easier for you to remember if _you _had to carry this around." He waved his tail towards his stomach. "This is still too weird for me."

"Oh, he-he, right, sorry."

He yawned. "Look, I'm tired, let's figure this out another time."

"Okay."

He turned and plodded into the nursery into his nest. Feeling like he could sleep a million moons, he quickly fell asleep. The next morning, he woke up strangely early due to a pang in his belly. "Great, a bellyache, what next?"

Hornetfur padded in. "How are you today?"

"Fine, got a slight bellyache, but that's it."

"Should I fetch Brownleap?"

"Yeah, sure, why not. I could do with a pawful of berries to put me back to sleep."

She disappeared again, only to reappear seconds later followed by the mottled medicine cat. "Bellyache?" he asked.

"Slight," he replied.

Although Bumblefur knew most of the herbs, he didn't recognize some of the herbs Brownleap had with him. Sure, there were water mint and juniper berries, normal for stomach aches, there were some that he'd never saw before. Suddenly, Brownleap jabbed him in the stomach. "Ouch! What was that for?"

Brownleap looked up. "What? What was what for?"

"You jabbed me!"

Now he looked confused. " No I didn't."

"Then who did?"

He chuckled. "Hornetfur, you know who did."

His words sent chills up and down his spine. The truth was, if it wasn't Brownleap, he _did_ know. He gulped. "Now?"

"Yes, now."

Hornetfur looked as horrified as Bumblefur felt. _Oh no, this is going to be fun_, he thought sarcastically. But by the time he looked up again, he didn't see any of them inside of the nursery. Instead, a large, black tom with pure white eyes was looking at him, cold amusement in his eyes in a misty, black void. "You! You switched our bodies!" he hissed. He knew who this mysterious cat was. The same one who messed with them for cold enjoyment. It was the Devil himself.

When the cat didn't answer, Bumblefur leaped at him, surprised by his agility. Then he looked down and realized, _I'm in _my_ body! _"What are you doing?" Hornetfur hissed, arriving from the mist in her body, slim and strong all the same.

Together, they lunged at him. The cat dissipated into smoke, a reappeared beside Hornetfur. She twisted and managed to rake her claws down the Devil's cheek. He hissed, but didn't flinch and sunk his teeth into Hornetfur's shoulder. She yelped in pain, scrambling to free herself from the needle-sharp teeth and claws. Bumblefur sliced the creature's flank, and he let his mate go. He lunged once more for the Devil's throat. At that moment, he felt a third cat fight with him. The Devil took one look at the newcomer and fled.

Bumblefur turned to thank their rescuer, but when he turned around he saw the exit of the nursery. He flipped around to see Hornetfur staring down at four kits suckling close to her belly. They were back to normal.

"What should we name them?" she whispered.

"Onekit, Twokit, Redkit, and Bluekit," he answered. "I've been thinking a long time about that."

"Okay," she yawned. "Goodnight honey, and don't say anything about our adventure."

For the first time in a while. Bumblefur let out a long, drawn out purr that he was sure the warriors could hear from the other side of the camp.


End file.
